Let Us Quantify You

The so-called “quantified self” movement spent a number of years in a backwater of serious geekiness. Log-keepers, obsessive-compulsives and number lovers of all stripes were trying to
glean patterns and meaning from their own data trail long before devices made the task not only easier but almost inescapable. But in very short order, data has not only become a meme of
business-to-business parlance and marketers. The trend has gone mainstream now, as ever more intimate devices quantify aspects of our existence whether we ask them to or not. Every Web page now tells
us how many other people are sharing this article -- because somehow it isn’t enough that you are interested in it. I have Yahoo and Daily Beast news apps that try to gamify my interactions with
them and show me how many stories I have read or skipped. I didn’t know I was supposed to keep score.

I kid because I love these sometimes-silly attempts to take the data users are
casting off and actually make it meaningful to them. This is something all data gatherers should be heeding.

The first stages of the data governance and privacy debates focused on the narrow,
albeit important, terrain of personal privacy and security. A next, even-more-interesting phase may involve ordinary consumers figuring out for themselves what to do with the very same data third
parties are collecting. What if the conversation between consumer and brand regarding data moved from simple questions of ownership and control toward more creative uses of the data on the
consumer’s behalf? If I am going to give you all of this intimate data about my online and offline activities, how can you make it work to my benefit? And just so you know, “serving more
relevant offers and advertising” is not the right answer.

The “Higi” health monitoring kiosk is probably not the right answer, either. But this quantified self project is
interesting directionally. It suggests how we need to think about data as media, as service, and as an opportunity for marketing via a demonstrable value exchange.

The Higi, as highlighted by partner IPG Media Lab, is a sit-down kiosk that likely sits within a pharmacy section. It delivers a range of personal
health info, from weight to blood pressure, and renders a score indicating general health. But this is only the beginning. You also can start an account that lets you regularly recheck your health
scores and use a mobile app for incremental updates and more detailed personal reporting.

IPG Media Lab says this provides a simple media opportunity: two screens that can deliver video ads to
both the user of the device and passersby. The kiosk also includes a printer that spews out coupons personalized to the customer.

OK, yeah. Sure. But in the end, marketers that consumers let
in to their intimate health information are going to have to give back with more than ad pods and coupons. The real potential for this kind of personal data is to craft data sets that help people
improve their lives.

I fear that marketers don’t really get this concept about the device revolution. Marketers see these devices as the screen where people need to be intercepted. But
the underlying meaning people attach to these devices more closely resembles automobiles than another media screen. Empowerment, control, freedom, mastery of space: all are values we invest into
devices. That's why the quantifiable self is being accelerated by handsets and wearables.

Think about how the data and these screens can amplify and enhance the reasons we love the devices in
the first place, rather than plotting new ways to derail us from the experiences we seek.

Big Brother is here and it is not that asinine TV show. Who is in control of all of your information and what can they do with it ? You need that heart medication ? Then you have to buy a toothbrush you don't need or pay a stiff fine. It gets worse. You can get your meds if your spouse cleans a particular person's house. "We are begging to be controlled." Then we will hear nobody saw it coming. Cassandra over and out.

Steve Smith is the Editorial Director, Events at MediaPost where he oversees all OMMA and Insider Summit event content. He is also the longtime Mobile Insider/MoBlog columnist for Mobile Marketing Daily. A recovering academic who taught media studies at Brown and University of Virginia, he spent the last decade as a digital media critic for numerous publications and as a digital strategy consultant. He also writes for Media Industry Newsletter and eContent magazine. Contact him here.